Note 1013 — Chapter XIII · —Island Peoples

The result is a deterioration of morals, an invasion of the family bond, and a decay of the finer sentiments therewith connected. Captain Cook in 1770 found in Tahiti Eareeoie or Arreoys societies, which were free-love associations including in their number "over half of the better sort of the inhabitants." The children begotten of these promiscuous unions were smothered at birth. Obscene conversations, indecent dances and frank unchastity on the part of girls and women were the attendant evils of these loose morals.1013 Cook was sure that "these societies greatly prevent the increase of the superior classes of people of which they are composed." Malthus reports a similar association in the Marianne Islands, distinguished by a similar name, devoted to race suicide.1014 Everywhere in Oceanica marriage is unstable, and with few exceptions unchastity prevails. Stevenson thinks it chiefly accountable for the decline of population in the islands.1015 However, in the detailed taboos laid upon women in Fiji, Marquesas, and other Polynesian islands we have the survival of an early measure to increase reserve between the sexes, long after regard for chastity has vanished.1016